The art of forming glass fibers by attenuating streams of heat-softened glass to fibers has been known for many years and continuous fibers or filaments of glass are formed by attenuating the fibers or filaments by engaging them with a rotating instrumentality such as a pull wheel or by winding a strand of the fibers or filaments upon a spool or other rotating body. Various treatments have been applied to fibers or filaments to provide coatings on the fibers or filaments for various purposes or processing the fibers or filaments to impart a roughened surface or other specific characteristics to the fibers or filaments.
More recently fibers or filaments have been made embodying successive kinks, crimps or bends in the attenuated fibers or filaments through the use of a cooling or quenching fluid engaged with the tip regions of the cones of glass streams during their attenuation to the fibers or filaments. A known method and apparatus for forming fibers or filaments of glass with kinks, bends or crimps in the attenuated fibers or filaments are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,050,916 and 4,145,199.